#why does he have all the cursed dev art

[brodorokihousuke]

BANGLESS EDGEWORTH JUMPSCARE

[the-gayest-show]

The Haunting of Wells House/Best of Luck Review/Analysis

NEW EPISODES AGAIN YIPPEE YIPPEE YIPPEE

The Haunting of Wells House:

I love a fun episode to get my mind off the angst of Operation Birthday Take back!

The gag of this being a paranormal TV show were so great! So many minor things I loved like the "Paranormal Pursuit" show title they keep saying. Literally cracked me up the way they were saying it.

I also adore the interview gags, you cannot tell me this ain't so fitting for both of them!

"My local paper called my performance of Ebenezer Scrooge 'Not as bad as it could've been'" 😭

Her expression is golden.

Also the reference to that one painting from Cosmo and Wanda was a nice touch (I mean they already had The Scream up there before this)

(The original is called American Gothic, I had no idea! I knew the art piece generally but didn't know the name till I googled and it and suddenly boom that's the name. AND it's from the 1930s! Ain't that cool stuff!)

Jorgan reappearance! We haven't seen you in like. A bit. I'm pretty sure not since the fairy testing thing but I could be wrong. "Father Jorgan" I love how Wanda and Cosmo literally summon him for the sole purpose of "exorcising" a ghost fairy. Funniest shit on Earth fr. Bro was NOT built for the "Father" role. HE LITERALLY GETS "DA RULES" OUT INSTEAD OF A BIBLE IM CRYINNGGGGGGGGGGGGGG

Also why does bro just have like so many cassette tapes? Are they all cursed? Are more fairies trapped in tapes or something? And it's a LARGE collection. WHY DO YOU HAVE THAT MANY TAPES JORGAN WH-

Overall, this episode was fun as hell and I ADORED Hazel and her dad's dynamic together. Tbh it's so cute! Hazel is so enthusiastic about hunting for the apartment ghost with her dad it's so wholesome 🥺 I honestly love the father/daughter duo sm an episodic adventure episode is so nice. Also the TV segment thing was awesome af, enjoyed that a lot. I feel like it's probably in reference to Buzzfeed Unsolved or something.

Best of Luck:

Ohhhhh boy, Dev is back again! And it is NOT looking good! I found this episode to be kinda heartbreaking for many reasons. This entire episode essentially revolves around Dev wanting to make "rule breaking" wishes (eg. win the tournament and that t-shirt) but Peri (being normal about Da Rules) tells him he can't (because he can't) and Dev and Peri have a little fight in which Peri seems to quit. I find that looking back, he might've been crying?

Bro's got tears rolling down his face and everything!

And then he gets replaced with Minecraft Steve Foop Irep, who retains the cube shape he was born in (is this a glimpse into a potential timeline where Peri would've been a sphere?), and really hates his name change unlike his normal fairy counterpart.

HE SAYS HE'S MORE ATTRACTIVE 😭 If only he knew that Peri was a Tumblr sexy man and he.... isn't.

Anyway, Dev literally uses the anti-fairy powers of not giving a fuck about the rules to essentially wish his way into winning the stupid prize, while giving Hazel bad luck (which she manages to get past using good luck charms) and making her lose the tournament.

-

Important thing, let's talk about that scene after Dev wins. He's expecting Hazel to be upset about losing, like... really upset. When she's not that upset and takes losing normally, he lashes out at her.

He WANTS her to react like how he's been reacting to the thought of losing the competition. I think this is still a reaction to his dad being neglectful at the party (and he very likely hasn't stopped being absentee since then). He's projecting his own emotions, and rejecting Hazel's attempts to be nice.

"I don't need your caring and understanding, Hinkle!" (This is also a sign of Dev's detachment from Hazel, since he reverts back to the "everything but calling her Hazel" bit)

He's more happier with physical things rather than emotional. He seems to avoid the emotional wishes, likely a coping mechanism for the neglect, opting to use the rule free wishes of Irep to wish for money, love from some classmate (who he's never been shown to love back in any way before this), to be the King of America (bro really invented monarchy for a monarchy-less country. Crazy.).

And then he literally wishes for Cosmo and Wanda to be nothing! To kill them essentially! I think that's driven by Dev's idea that having two fairies is better than one (a concept I remember being battled on with Remy Buxaplenty and his one fairy), even if it isn't and they're all still bound to the same rules, and by some motivation to get back at Hazel, likely another projection of his feelings.

Just before the mini battle ends, Dev exclaims that he's "finally going to get everything [he's] ever wanted" and that they're ruining it for him. I think, deep down, Dev really wants his dad's affection. I've mentioned this before in the review I did for the Take back episode, but he seemed so devastated about the lack of attention from his father then and even way back from scavenger hunt episode when Dev and Hazel first bonded with each other. Personally, I think Dev was likely going to use Irep (and his ability to basically with whatever, in Dev's eyes) to wish his father could be different. I think that was the real goal, and all the physical stuff was for show and very surface level wishing.

Dev's rejection of Hazel eventually gets to Hazel herself, where she chucks the shirt at him and says "Fine! Take the dumb shirt! I hope it was worth it." Hazel is probably very much done with Dev for the time being, because she tried to reach out to him but she could see he doesn't want any of it.

Let's spawn in the question of Peri. Peri technically should act as a father figure or some kind of parental figure in this case, but he's defo been screwed over by the council for giving him this boy with issues and seems to resent him for constantly not listening when Peri says that some things are against the rules, which is why he temporarily takes a break. I know someone on a discord server pointed out that Peri isn't really bonded with Dev yet, and that really rings true.

You can see this when Peri pretty much ignores his godkid in favour of his parents (which I guess contextually could be described as just being wrapped up in convo, but knowing his track record it's likely the former). THE KID WAS SITTING RIGHT THERE! SAD! Peri, to me at least, doesn't seem like he's emotionally equipped for the job of truly being there for Dev. Cosmo and Wanda seemed way better at this in OG FOP, where they constantly looked out for Timmy, even if he was a bit of a brat at times. But Peri really does care, even a little, as evidenced by the fact that he was jealously watching over Dev while he was gone. He wanted him to call Peri back. I wonder if Peri will figure out how to adjust to being a more parental figures than he hoped, because for now it seems he's thinking about this more as a job than an actual child he has to take care of. I hope he'll improve that aspect of himself, especially concerning the finale.

-

NOW ON TO THINGS I NOTICED!

AYOOOOOO FLIPPED GENDER ROLES OF THE KNITTING AND READING NEWSPAPER LETS GOOOOOOOOO

It's also kinda weird to me that they sorta fly up and come out of the box at Hazel's school after this. It gave me the vibes of "we're living inside the box" but they aren't? Wasn't that their home? Anyways.

I said it once and will say it again: Irep is built like Minecraft Steve. You can't change my mind.

Mr Guzman is so happy at the new nickname lol. He's got that 😎 expression.

JORGAN YOU ARE BACK AGAIN. DOUBLE WHAMMY RETURN. TWO EPISODES IN ROW, KEEP UP THAT STREAK DAWG!

I guess there's a fairy HR too? And I thought the DMV was bad enough. Placing my bets on a fairy godparent union now.

Overall this episode had a lot for me to ponder on and now I wonder what Dev's gonna do with the information about anti-fairies he's gonna collect (how the fuck are the o-pears gonna know shit about this anyway). One of the episodes is Irep and Dev taking over fairy world, so I guess minecraft Steve is gonna make a reappearance, plus Dev will likely try to take over Fairy World with the same vulnerable-ish state he's in. I LOVE the plot thickening! FUCK YEAH BITCHES WE GETTING LORE

[giglio-nero-e-bianco]

*shaking you violently* I fucking love this au. There’s so much angst and your art is spectacular. And OH MY GOD HES DOOMED TO BE STUCK HERE FOREVER! It’s such an incredible contrast to the other timeline you’ve outlined. Because clearly peri does care for Irep but now he’ll never have a choice.

Also, how have all the faries not turned to confetti? How’s the world take over plan work out?

Peri does love Irep, he never stopped loving him, and now with the curse that love is even stronger than before 💜

The fairies won't die from magical build-up because their magic won't be stored

The same reason Irep gave Dev as to why he wanted to curse Peri: use them as batteries

We know that fairies CAN be used for their magic and it CAN get drained from them then transfered somewhere else

Anti-fairies don't suffer from this, if they did then they would've exploded in all the time they spent in Abracatraz, so if they so wanted, they could just use the fairies magic as they wanted to prevent both parties from dying

[millipedish]

Dang. Wishing Night got me reinvested in notfm in a way that diaries and memory in the mirror couldn't. While i enjoy the gameplay for all four game modes, the stories had a very "by the way" feel to them that took immersion away. By the way, when Red was 10 she was way more powerful than she is now. By the way, Red has a sister that no one has even mentioned before. Even the Jerry route in full moon is a "by the way" that kind of tries to retcon some of my fav characters and i still don't know how i feel about that. Wishing night is the first true sequel and it's a long time coming

It also sold me on the central ship, a little? I can't say that I ship the kids but but the tragedy is interesting to me. Red's denial is engaging. Her denial about Jerry's death and even that fact that he's a werewolf. She is such a badass in full moon and diaries, but she is just a kid who's gone through way more than she should have. It's heartbreaking to see such a strong character showing the signs of a mental breakdown.

This makes mechanic Red the only Canon Red in my hc, simply bc of my feels. Will I feel like that still later? Who knows.

Not to mention that the reused art gives me brainworms. I can't imagine why the weapon dealer has become so enthusiastic about the weapons he sells given his backstory. Unless it's a different guy? The owl shopkeeper canonically being the other shopkeepers son is a great touch. And i love seeing the apocathary again. His English voice is so great.

Also several of my favorite characters from full moon were retooled as minions, mostly for Red. Probably this is the closest I'll ever come to seeing Red and Crocdad teaming up. Au where the forest spirit is defeated but instead of transforming back, the cursed people are recruited by mechanic Red.

Not terribly impressed by the new enemies, tho I am curious about wtf is up with the orbs. I wonder if the devs will follow up on that, our of its yet another lost thread.

Also i like the mermaid and the shark. The mermaid is adorable and I want to be her friend, and the shark's PTSD symptoms are haunting. His cage is his mind :(. Makes me want to write a drabble with him and the Tin Man, who's body turned into a cage.

Also hecking curious about Queen Italis(sp?). Not only how does she connect to the plot, but all this stuff about her not being of the world and having visiting the God of wish once before. My headcanon? She was the nightingale mentioned in one of the endings. Maybe she fell in love with the king she belonged to and wished to become his wife? But idk. Would love to see other people's theories

[stellalunathewitch]

(I hope it’s okay to write different takes on this because I LOVE writing about the Sallows 🤣)

Even though I don’t agree that it should of happened that way, I actually want to present that: Solomon did NOT try everything, let Anne AND Sebastian suffer, and has been described by the devs as emotionally abusive towards Sebastian. I’ll present this below.

So the thing is, Solomon flat out tells you he knows the only way to cure Anne would be to find a the caster of the curse, however as he thinks it’s a goblin and they are attacking, he follows it with:

“and the goblins aren’t likely to explain themselves any time soon”

So he is basically again, saying that if he simply reported the attacks to the Ministry or really any other enforcement, conducted his own search (sort of how Sharp does for Fig on the down low), AND put in the work… he would have found answers and a way to undo the curse as it’s a unique one and only a caster would know. But what would that have gotten him? Closer to the TRUTH, probably get some arrests made, and interrogate a reversal from said caster. You know, how Aurors get things done.

But what did he do?

None of that. He decided to take her to healers at St. Mungos to see if there was anything they could do for her, but much like Samantha Dale’s brother, it’s a unique curse and can only be undone if it’s “broken” by how it was caused (or knowing who casted). So instead after a few more attempts that summer, Solomon decided to help her make peace with it and let her live the rest of her life until the end this way. He also decided to keep to himself about the attacks likely due to a personal matter (I will elaborate), but in doing so only leaves the lives of his niece and nephew and other villagers at risk as a report to ANYONE, could have stopped Ranrok’s damage from spreading. You know what he also didn’t do? He didn’t offer to move away the kids to safety as the goblin attacks didn’t end after Anne’s curse. YET, he only offered it when he witnessed Sebastian use an unforgivable?

You know, one thing that never sat right with me was Solomon’s lore, and it’s that he suddenly quit his Auror job and went to go live at a hamlet near Hogwarts for unknown reasons (implied from NPC dialogue to maybe be about him). It’s also mentioned on his wiki that it’s possible he left the Ministry because he used unforgivables and after a while, felt disgusted with himself and left. Aurors are also cleared to use unforgivables (at least during the 90s as seen by Mad Eyed Moody). So it’s not wrong to be against the dark arts, they’re obviously looked down upon for a reason, but if this is indeed the case, I do ask this: Why does Solomon get to retire early to a hamlet after possibly taking it too far with an unforgivable (hinted from Anne to Sebastian after you ask him why he won’t go to the Ministry about you two) and redeem himself… but Sebastian being young, clearly influenced by a book not meant for him to find and fulfill, deserve no redemption or to learn from this huge mistake with an unforgivable and be sent to Azkaban right away? I ask this generally, really. There’s no wizarding juvie and a lot of prisoners don’t just get to serve time in Azkaban and leave. It’s literally a slow death of a wizard. Azkaban is a place meant for threats to ALL kind. Does one singular 15-16 year old who committed ONE irreversible major mistake thinking he was doing the right thing deserve that?

This may be a fault in the game but we really don’t see much of what Anne really feels (before THE EVENT) other than the fact she doesn’t like it when Solomon and Sebastian fight and she just wants him to stop searching as she can see it’s changed him (this is also implied by what other npc’s comment about him within game files). One thing Anne DID express and show, is that despite her situation, she does not decline Sebastian’s attempts when he presents them and DOES constantly go on about how much she misses being at Hogwarts and her old life. You can even find her practicing her spells in her home too. Then when Sebastian presented her the shrivelfig, she TOO, looked so hopeful that it would help. So this begs the question, yes Anne has made peace with it, but would she really stop Sebastian if it meant he WAS closer to a cure that wasn’t the way it ended?

About Sebastian’s Search for the “Cure”:

I think it’s obvious the cure was never in the book. If anything at the start Sebastian was looking at ingredients or really any remedies that could help. However they were constantly declined by Solomon. If you pick apart the mission where we go to the home on the hill that’s been burned down in Feldcroft, you notice Sebastian is intrigued, confused, but interested in this thing called “ancient magic” it is that you tell him about. He’s never heard of it, but after you show him a glimpse of it through the portal, he has a realization. That realization is “maybe I’m going about this all wrong. Maybe the answer behind Anne’s curse lies within what caused it… which is the dark arts.” (He was wrong obviously but being as this was his 2nd year in his search, he was now starting to get desperate.)

This is what starts the domino effect for his quest line. Before he was cautious regarding it and even had second thoughts in the Great Hall about it. After he received that book and had spent all his free time reading on it, he is suddenly “convinced” he’s on the right track, except he wasn’t. You can actually see a board with his research and constant trial and errors where he circled or scratched out his findings in the Undercroft I think. There’s a tumblr post that goes into detail of what it contains, but pretty much, that book was never going to give him the answer. The only thing it was going to achieve was a plan of Slytherin for an heir to find, but as that wasn’t the case, manipulating the subject into believing it would get them where they wanted would also do the trick. Salazar did love “manipulation” and sick games (as we can see from his Scriptorium).

The “Emotional Abuse”

Before, we could only see it by how it’s portrayed in game, but after last stream, the writers in charge of Sebastian’s story shed some light about him, and one thing they said is that “despite his emotional abuse at home and struggles, he doesn’t let that affect his personality at Hogwarts and does his best to be himself.”

So they just told and confirmed to us that, yes, Solomon is emotionally abusive towards Sebastian. As for how long, Sebastian mentions he was always that way with him when you first get to Feldcroft, but it only worsened after Anne got cursed. The next thing I’m going to say is all speculation, but it’s been observed that it’s also “possible” Solomon made Sebastian sleep in the little cot outside the home too, which would explain how Anne ran out that night on her own without her brother as you’d think they stick together, but again, there’s no backing to this. (There’s also a rumor that he’s the one that tampers with her kit and keeps her sick according to a letter in the home and Solomon seen using it, but there’s no actual backing to this “theory”.)

One thing we CAN pick apart from context clues they drop is that Solomon and his brother likely rarely saw eye to eye. So when he died, Solomon only carried on that anger into Sebastian. Now this doesn’t necessarily mean he hates Sebastian, but probably Solomon feels some sort of guilt that he never got to end on good terms with his brother, is angry at this, and instead projects it into Sebastian. Then there’s the hint we get that since Sebastian is just like his father (looks and behavior probably), it only brings Solomon back to that anger at the reality.

The Wrap Up

I pretty much wrote this because there wasn’t an option I agreed with in the poll but also to offer another take based on what I’ve seen from MANY replays I’ve done on this game (blame Gossip Gaunt lol) and my need to dig at the files and collecting pieces direct from the devs in the form of their streams or guides.

Solomon didn’t deserve that but he didn’t do “everything”, Sebastian shouldn’t have done that, WE shouldn’t have ever given him the book, but I also think he’s capable of redemption, and for him Azkaban isn’t the answer. Well, to me, at least.

[thesims2comics]

any chance of rating the posters? cue eyes emoji

*cracks knuckles* let's GO!

(I've included some posters from the EPs and APs, otherwise this would be a very short list of like 4 posters)

LONG POST AHEAD!!!

Engineered Angst Full poster: 5/10. what's going on here?? Is the person in front going to an eye doctor with funky walls? And why does she kinds look like a Urbz DS render? So many question, no answers

Engineered Angst Red: 6/10. Better than the previous one imo, I like the sims' facial expression a lot! And this is a me problem, but it kind of reminds me of the promo clips of the virtual boy?? Y'know that nintendo console that only used red and black as its colors? Still pretty cool though!

Searing Indifference: 7/10 Angsty teen poster number 3. Honestly? Iconic, this is one of those posters that I still remember from playing the game when I was younger. I've always thought it was a band poster though. Nonetheless, it's a very cheesy poster but I just can't rate this any lower

"Civic Idol" by Adora Wall Arts: 7/10 AMAZING POSTER!! I'd say it's the best "emo/edgy" poster in the game. I'd only like to know what the hell that humanoid thing is. Also, the red thing looks wonky and apparently the white stripes are meant to say "Civic Idol". But the skyline and the moon look so great and the red stripe makes it look like dangerous and egdy. Kudos for the amazing composition of this one

Pets poster: 5/10. Cursed. For some reason, this poster looks much more jankier and pixelated than the others, even the basegame ones. Kinda simple, but it sorta does the job (Fun fact: this is one of the few posters that have variants! Which redeems it)

Revolutionary Rebellion poster: 8/10. Really cool! I love the hard red with the black and white and is much less crispier than some other posters. In the build&buy description it says that we should check out the Sim with the moustache but honestly, I have no idea what that's about. At least it looks pretty nice! Kent, Nervous and Moustache Mercutio is my fave rockband

"It's Reggae, Mon" Poster: 9/10. Really pretty!! I love the posing of this guy and with the sun flare and background it's one of the most beautiful posters available! Also, seeing the previous music posters' description, I thought the devs would've made fun of the genre since they also did that with the teenage angst posters. But I think it's actually really nice and cool what they wrote about reggae music so I've included it for you to read

"Fists of Bunny" poster: 8/10. I think this might be an anime reference or something? Or is this what the Social Bunny does when he's not with a sim? Just anime kicking in the Void? I don't get the reference, but it does look cool! Would I hang this up in my actual room? Probably yeah! And I like that it's the Social Bunny, we don't see the guy that often in the Build&Buy

Inverted Vertigo, Cover art: 5/10. What the hell is going on here??? Hands??? light strokes? Some people? A face??? This reminds when I discovered blending layers in a drawing program for the first time honestly.

All the alien posters: 8/10 Tumblr limits me to only upload 10 images, so these guys are getting grouped. Hell yeah! Alien posters! These look cool as hell, HD quality next to the pets poster. I don't know how to feel about the way too human alien head on the left though, it kinda freaks me out, because for the sims 2 this is far too realistic. And apparently the guy on the surfboard is PT#9 cousin, RT#66 surfing through the galaxy, good for him! These posters are rad as hell in my opinion, especially after some rather small and pixelated ones.

That's gonna be it for the poster review! There's an image limit of 10 and because I have the Super Collection I don't have all the posters, so there isn't gonna be a part 2 from me. If anyone else feels like completing this list with all the posters form the Ultimate Collection or make their own review with the posters, feel free to do so!

These were just my opinions on the posters, if you have others thoughts on the posters that's fine, your opinion is valid!

[sheepbish]

The HoL bathrooms

I know that no one probably cares about this, but I just need to put my take on this out there. The number of bathrooms in the House of Lamentation has been something plaguing my mind for too long , so I have compiled some info from the game and my thoughts on them.

[ Warnings: very slight spoilers for normal lessons up to season 3 ]

(AN: This is my first time writing something semi serious on this website, so please be patient with my mediocre writing style. Thank you for reading my ramblings, I really appreciate <3)

~Content under the cut~

Mc´s bathroom

The first time mc`s bathroom is alluded to is in Lesson 4, after the TSL quiz

Beel mentions that Mammon is over in Mc´s room so much that he has even left his toothbrush there

Another mention of this bathroom is in the chat "Bath Time With Asmo 1"

Asmo talks about wanting to use the bathrooms of Lucifer or Mc, rather than the common bathroom

Lucifer´s bathroom

The chat above is the only mention I could think of/found of his own bathroom

I always assumed that he has his own bathroom, mostly because of his commitment to avoid people seeing him in any kind of compromising situation (literally putting a curse on everyone after the first beach event, as well as the dame event and wearing rash guards in the second beach event)

Asmo´s bathroom

There isnt´much to talk about here, this is one of the rooms with specific background artwork and is a topic/location throughout the main story, chats and many devilgrams

The common bathroom

Another canon location with background art

there really isn´t much to this one

These four bathrooms definitly exist in the house, three being attached to bedrooms, which means that 5 of the brothers share one bathroom (Asmo might not be wrong in calling it a pigsty)

I headcanon that Levi also has his own bathroom, I mean come on, he is a literal water snake demon with an aquarium for a room and a bathtub for a bed, the least they could have done is give him a real functioning bathtub smh

-> Bonus: Serenity Manor

Serenity Manor is technically not part of the house, but since many rooms are the same due to the portals connecting back to the HoL, I wanted to talk about it briefly.

During their stay at Serenity Manor all of the brothers and Mc had access to their own rooms, as well as to specific rooms they requested to Barbatos. Asmo specifically requested his bathroom to be connected, we learn this quite early in S3, in Lesson 41-7 to be exact.

But they didn´t connect every room obviously, things like the living room, the kitchen and yes probably the bathroom too, are already in the house, so they can be used normally without a portal. 

But more importantly, I have reason to believe that, exept for Asmo  and maybe Lucifer, everyone shares the common bathroom of the manor. Two moments that made me think about this are Lesson 49 and the Mammon devilgram “Staying Home Together”, which is also set during their stay in the human world.

In lesson 49-15 Mammon suggest taking over bathroom cleaning duty for a week, should they loose the game to Lucifer (so there is obviously a shared bathroom in this house)

After finding out that Lucifer payed for their tickets, even though they lost the game, Mammon runs to thank Lucifer and basically ambushes him in the shower (I realise now that this could also mean that Lucifers bathroom was connected too, but oh well)

 In the devilgram “Staying Home Together” Mammon and Mc take turns showering after getting caught in the rain, suggesting that Mc does not have their own bathroom in the manor and also uses the common bathroom

In conclusion, there are definitly four bathrooms in the HoL that canonically exist. The question still on my mind after this discovery is Why did they not connect  Mc´s bathroom to the manor in S3?

Honestly this is probably just a case of the devs forgetting about Mc´s bathroom and, since it is only a devilgram, it´s probably not something to take too seriously, I don´t think that they meant to make someone fall into a rabbit hole about bathrooms.

If you actually made it to the end of this nonsense, thank you for reading. This was really just a random thought that has been bugging me ever since S3 and ended up taking up quite a bit of research, since the wiki didn´t give me a clear enough answer. (And I still believe that Levi deserves his own bathroom )

~Soph 🖤

[rsmrymnt-tea]

I just played through the new HDD lessons and I... What????

The 3rd lesson specifically has me pulling at my hair. The cast is reduced to idiots once again!! We've got Dia, Barb, Luci, Sol, and Satan here at the party and yet the curse is still an issues?

Lucifer canonically is very good at breaking curses and what does he do? We're to believe Solomon and Satan have never heard of the curse and are therefore unaware of how to break it, and they also have no methods to work out the solution on their own??? And Dia has the power to reincarnate Lilith as a human (and keep the Celestial Realm from noticing) and Barbatos has unspecified time powers and they're both useless too?

Why are they asking the demons in the Little D's for help? It's so stupid. And also they are trying these solutions that the demons are suggesting! Does that mean that these are feasible ways to break a curse? Why is the cast doing the stuff but not the MC?

Not to mention the stakes are pretty pathetic? If you think about it I guess having your personality altered indefinitely sucks. But in the event MC only makes remarks that are barely meaner than their usual dialogue. They don't do anything to particularly risk their relationships or hurt anyone so???? And even though the cast is like oh no we have to hurry it's not as if there was an actual deadline imposed I'm just sjdsks what is happening?

Also pretty lame to just say that the demons we're returned to wherever once the curse was broken. That doesn't make sense, and it happened off screen. What was the point of having them here really??

- 🐝

I’m gonna yell this here, but for all the hype that the devs built up for this event—

IT IS SOoooOOOoOOO SHIT GRRRRRRRRRRR

Four fucking pages to one event and this is the best they can come up with? I’m as disappointed and upset as I was during the Art event where the most competent characters were also completely useless just to pad out the fucking thing when writing a decent story for it wouldn’t take such any strenuous stretch of the imagination.

Like… This is soooooooo stupid. If MC’s supposed to be sadistic now, why tf didn’t they just grab Valago and shake him like a maraca until he told them how to undo the curse?

Hell, why didn’t anyone else do that?

Why didn’t Solomon and Satan go off somewhere to begin researching the curse? Why tf couldn’t Dia do anything??? Don’t tell me some demon in the body of a Little D outdid the prince of the Devildom with a curse? And if MC was holding the protective stone and the bouquet the whole time why didn’t anyone think to use those instead right away??????????? My Disbelief Could Not Be Suspended At All And That Is Bad

And god, yeah. Why why why were they just going with the Little D’s suggestions when I cannot fucking imagine anything that they suggested as being ways to counter the curse? Especially if it’s not MC who’s doing any of it lmao???

Would’ve been fun if they did it like reverse Halloween where MC’s the unhinged one but nooo… Gotta go lukewarm! Which I guess they have to since not everyone wants to be mean to the boys but then why go with a personality change as a curse in the first place if they’ll give the option to be nice?

And yeah, I thought we’d like, have those little buggers stick around for a little bit now that they’ve had their fun? But no, I guess not? We don’t find out anything about them at all????

Then the side boys all go home if you don’t take the story key route??????????

The nicest part I guess was the end with the photo album but I wish that part stretched a couple more chapters. Like wouldn’t it be nice for them to talk more about how much they love and appreciate MC? Without the influence of gems? Would’ve nice if some of the Gem event dialogue went here instead…

Are we just not the crowd for the events or something? Because half the time they just grind my gears with how stupid they make everyone for the sake of forcing it to go longer. The entirety of Part 3 just shouldn’t exist.

The whole thing certainly didn’t feel like the pleasant surprise that I was hopping for :/

[hunkledunk]

Oh good lord. Here goes I guess...

Name? I'd rather not say, I'm sure you understand. I WILL say I was named after a star wars actor though =3

Pronouns/gender? He/Him, and I'm cis. I've questioned my gender a looooot though (RIP r/egg_irl) and I've been thinking a lot recently about presenting a lot more femme with earrings and a skirt and such. I don't think I'll be transitioning any time soon but idk, anything is possible.

Sexuality? I can feel attracted to anyone femme presenting, really. cis or trans girls of any sort, femboys too. I'm not too hung up on labels myself and I haven't given it much thought tbh. I will say the only "masc" person I've been attracted to is, inexplicably, jack black. The tik tok videos. You know the ones.

Country? Scotland!

Top 5 fandoms? Pokemon is an easy choice, was a megafan growing up and still have a lot of fondness for the community. I love a lot of the fan art for both Deltarune and Omori in particular, that only leaves binding of isaac and smash bros.

Most forbidden snack? My own fingernails... -_-

Would I pet a bug? It'll consider itself lucky if I can get it out of my house safely, that is all. Maybe a ladybug on a good day.

Weird fact/story? I lived on a country road sandwiched between two farms as a kid. During that time a sheep on one of the farms died, leaving behind two lambs. The farmer asked our family to care for them until they were old enough to be let back into the fields on their own, so for a good half year we kept two baby lambs, one black and one white, in a dilapidated caravan in our back garden. (I do not have pictures... Digital cameras were just barely a thing)

What does the colour blue taste like? bro what blue. trick question. next.

Most beautiful thing I've seen? The moon. I don't need glasses but my vision gets blurry about two meters out without them. Seeing the moon properly, craters and shadows and texture and all, up there in a blank sky impossibly far away just does something to me. The universe is truly beautiful.

Stupidest thing I've ever done? This might sound silly but it's actually one of my most distressing recurring intrusive thoughts... When I was about 12 or so I was at a party and we were all celebrating something, I forget what, and I decide to try and PICK UP another kid on my SHOULDERS. Guys I have NEVER been strong. I put my head between his legs and basically just power bomb this poor kid, cracking his head on the hardwood ground. Miraculously, he wasn't seriously hurt and after the shock died off he didn't blame me at all but holy fuck guys... That memory is going to be the last thing I see before I die.

Stupidest thing I've seen someone else do? Knew a kid in high school who thought sugar was only in minecraft. lmao.

Hyperfixation song? Too many to count. The boys are back in town (to kill you) and Redesign your logo come to mind. Murders by Miracle Musical runs a close third for being eerily applicable to Omori, one of my top 5 fav games.

Any meaning behind profile pic/name? Nope. Mattyburitto animations slap and I came up with this name mashing sounds together in my head. I could never come up with an interesting name for myself that I actually like.

Dream career as a kid? game dev. duh. I went to college for software development but kinda lost the spark towards the end =(

Dream career as an adult? Anything fulfilling, I'm not picky. I will say being an instructor at like, a kids outdoor adventure group sounds like a lot of fun.

Thoughts on cilantro? Not huge on leafy greens as a general rule, cilantro is especially bad. Why is it minty???

Ever been banned from a location? Nope. I'm no troublemaker.

What is your cursed food combo? I don't do it much anymore, but buttered toast with crunchy peanut butter on top was my THING as a kid.

Trans rights? TRANS RIGHTS

I couldn't identify ten other r/196 residents with a gun to my head... I'll call on @wolfenchant, @reyna-daisuki, @unhinged-popsocket, @transgeneth, and @hatch-backward

Good luck everyone! this was fun.

“I just came from r/196” ask game

Saw another post. I think I should invite y'all to one of our longstanding traditions. Answer the questions then tag 10 (or more) people. I'll go first.

Name? Frankie

Pronouns and gender? he/they/it, transmasc

Sexuality? Lesbian

Country? USA

Top 5 fandoms? Bungou Stray Dogs, Cosmere, All for the Game, Fundiesnark (not a series but I'm too deep in it to not consider it a fandom), .....the tornado fandom? (they're my special interest)

What is your Most forbidden snack? The preserved bones at the Atlanta Bodies Exhibition. They looked so crunchy...

Would you pet a bug? If it's big enough, it is pettable.

Share a weird fact/story about yourself with the class. I like to drive around rural areas and photograph old, sometimes abandoned locations in the dead of night. I have been literally chased out of towns by foot and by car on two separate occasions. The second time this happened, "See You Again" by Miley Cyrus came up on shuffle and that's the soundtrack my friend and I tore out of town to. Also every "guy" I've dated except for my most recent ex (who has big egg energy) is a lesbian now.

What does the color blue taste like? Creme brulee

What is the most beautiful thing you've ever seen? The appalachian mountains of Tennessee in the middle of summer. There's kudzu everywhere. On the backroads, there were several old, dilapidated Baptist churches barely hanging to the side of the mountain. I wonder how many of them were still in use.

What is the stupidest thing you've ever done? Short version: my friend's house almost got broken into by this dude who'd been stalking us for months while we were home alone. Instead of calling the cops, we decided to confront him with a bow and arrow (me), a hatchet, and a baseball bat (him). The plan was that if it went badly, we would simply throw his corpse into one of the many lakes in the neighborhood and let the alligators eat his remains (this was Florida). Why? Because we were afraid of having our home-alone privileges revoked. Luckily for us all, the guy fucked off and we never saw him again.

Stupidest thing you've seen/heard someone else do/say? My ex thought that Jackalopes were real. Also, a nurse I was doing rotations with apparently thought that "Witness Protection" was for Jehovah's Witnesses.

Hyperfixation song? Young Enough + Bleach by Charly Bliss

Is there any meaning behind your profile picture and/or username? Profile pic; I'm transmasc and I'm currently obsessed with TriStamp. Username; It was my fake internet name when I was like 13. I won't change it because I want my mutuals to recognize me, and because I do have a viral post associated with this name.

Dream career as a child? Doctor (funnily enough I'm now in nursing school)

Dream career as an adult? Professional Jester. Not a comedian. I just want to be some weird little guy who dresses silly and you can hire me to roast your boss at work parties.

Thoughts on cilantro? Delicious

Have you ever been banned from a location and if so, why? I honestly can't remember? Probably... but in recent memory I've mainly banned people from places.

What is your cursed food combination? Pineapple on a hotdog with grilled onions. It Slaps.

Trans rights? TRANS RIGHTS

Tagging: @rocket-mankoi @mostlymarco @atleast8courics @jazzlike39 @gemsweater72 @limbobilbo @ameliaaltare @redcrane112 @theoneofwhomisblue @twinkenjoyer @theultimatecarp and anyone else who wants to jump on

[viviae]

The Red Plague: An Analysis

Ok, I’m to preface this that I am not at ALL a student of medicine or science I am just a humble blogger who really likes diseases, literary analysis, and the science behind death. This will also be a STUPIDLY long post so I am letting you all live by putting it behind a readmore this time

This goes without saying but there is a content warning to this. I’m talking about death, stages of decay, rotting, corpses, vomit, and other gross medical stuff. There will be NO images however. I subjected myself to viewing those images and I will not condemn you all to view them. 

I’m going to start this off making sure everyone is on the same page and post an image from the art book about the Red Plague itself

So let’s start with the canonical facts about the plague first

Average life expectancy was 3-7 days once symptoms show, Averages are also liars which means it could’ve taken a little bit more than 7 days or under 3 days to die. 

Spread by the plague beetles, exact method of transfer is unknown but Julian was force fed one and contracted the plague however they are safe to keep in containment.

Plague beetles also infected nonhuman objects like the water supply which is shown as a thick ichor. This ichor no longer possesses infectious properties at the time of the story

Julian believed that it had to do with a corruption in the blood hence the usage of leeches 

The Lazarus started as a containment center before becoming a crematorium, meaning people believed that it was spread from contact or things like that

HOWEVER This is not the first appearance of the plague as it would show up at locations Lucio stayed for too long but no note if it spread from these locations. 

It’s not a disease, its a curse.

So, this is one nasty plague on our hands. Most diseases that are this lethal would never be able to spread as much as it did unless it could spread from corpse contact or through other means like a carrier. I think that it could be spread through a combination of both which would add an additional need for cremation. 

Corpse Disposal & Spreading

Historically during plagues you would simply toss bodies into mass graves or ‘plague pits’. This would be, substantially, easier than what they do in Vesuvia. Cremation is not an easy process and is an art form. The heat needed for a cremation alone is incredibly hot and needs special methods to be contained. Not to mention the tedious cleaning process to make sure ashes don’t damage the heat element. So you are telling me that Vesuvia... went through the process of rowing away their dead to the middle of a lake to do mass cremations because it was the easiest? Yes they would’ve run out of grave space a while ago but no one is saying they can’t go make a plague pit out in the woods for half the work.

Now granted, I understand the imagery of making Asra wade through bodies of rotting corpses to find the apprentice’s bloated corpse is uh,,, graphic. Or making us stumble upon an open plague pit of bones in the woods with you LI is not what most people call romantic. (you’re welcome for that image) So they could’ve just made mass cremations on a separate island for tone reasons but that’s BORING.

Not a lot of diseases are actually capable of surviving in dead body simply because when we die our bodies lose the necessary high heats for them to multiply and survive. But this isn’t a disease in a traditional sense, its a curse to Lucio. And this is Lucio we are talking about, some one who is famously afraid of death and dying, which was grafted by a demon of pestilence who is obsessed with worms (cough maggot symbolism and death by disease cough). So I propose that the plague is spread in addition to plague beetles but by dead bodies themselves. This would put additional pressure on proper corpse disposal and the need for cremation. This fact would also explain why plague doctors were present at the boats leading to the Lazarus instead of simple plague carters (rowers?) as doctors would probably have to keep a closer eye on proper disposal of bodies.

As for how I think the beetles themselves spread the plague, I think it’s probably in a similar way as to how Lyme Disease is spread. I can’t name any disease that is spread by beetles themselves off the top of my head but ticks are pretty similar to beetles (I am not an entomologist). Lyme disease is spread by infected ticks biting into the hosts skin and regurgitating its stomach contents that includes the bacterium for the disease. 

This would explain why Julian got the plague pretty awful real quick. He consumed all of the plague beetle’s contents and Lucio didn’t have to try and force a beetle to bite Julian, which would’ve given Julian time to fight back. This is also working with the fact Lucio got bit by a plague beetle when running from Morga in his tale. He most likely contracted the plague, or perhaps he contracted the curse then and later on got re bit, in that bite. This would also explain the ichor that infects the water in the south end. Beetles are significantly larger than ticks, and so they might have a need to empty their stomach contents more and its more waste produced. 

Symptoms and Inspirations

The Red Plague is obviously, influenced by the Bubonic Plague in terms of symptoms and Tuberculous in treatment. I will list some of the common symptoms of Black Plague and signs and be comparing these to the Red Plague. I cannot stress enough that I do not have any knowledge in medicine but I don’t think the dev’s are all doctors so we are on even ground.

There are generally speaking three types of plagues; Bubonic (Most common type of The Black Plague and mainly targets your lymphatic system), Pneumonic (When the Plague enters and infects the lungs), and Septicemic (When the plague enters the blood stream, either form can lead to Septicemic)

Bolded Symptoms are what are obvious symptoms the Red Plague has taken from these three variations of plague. Italic is Lucio specific. 

High Fevers

Chills

Headache

Muscle Pain

Weakness

Seizures

Swollen black lymph nodes known as Buboes (Bubonic)

Internal Bleeding (Septicemic)

Gangrene (Septicemic)

Shock (Septicemic)

Vomiting Blood (Bubonic & Septicemic)

Coughing Blood & Mucus (Pneumonic)

Shortness of breath (Pneumonic) 

The Red Eyes

By far the most obvious symptom of the plague and its trademark. Consider this the equivalent of Buboes to the black plague. This is the first obvious symptom that marks you for dead and probably one of the first symptoms to show after a possible resting phase. 

Apparently it takes each eye individually as seen with Julian or it may not take both? The stage we see Julian in isn’t the clearest but I’m assuming he was rather early on with a pretty serious case. 

It’s also a debate of what exactly is going on with the red stringy bits under neath the eyes. For the sprite models it appears to be veins under the eyes that have been aggravated. While in the concept art above it has a more liquid and viscous look which is probably blood. And in Julian’s CG of him dying of the plague he has no marks around his eyes. So I’m saying its a fun combo of all of the above.

Essentially I think that the plague is causing the blood vessels in the eyes to pop and do serious damage. There can also be a foreign growth to occur behind the eyes or just magical nonsense, doing additional damage to the veins surrounding the eyes and cause bleeding from putting stress on the veins. 

The Arms and Lower Extremities

Ok, remember how I talked about Lucio’s fear of death and how its incredibly likely that the plague is manipulating his fear? In death there are various stages of decay, and different functions occur at each stage. And one of these functions is Livor Mortis. 

Livor Mortis is when your blood cells rupture out of your veins and die. These dead blood cells sink down to your body based off of gravity where they settle. This is seen as a purple color on the skin based on gravity, normally the back. This can be disrupted by any disruption to the body, but depending on time you are likely to receive lighter marks based on its previous position. 

What I think is going on all over the body is veins are rupturing and the body is going through an extreme form of living Livor Mortis. Just that it’s in red and not purple because this is the “Red Plague” and not the purple plague. And due to the patients still being alive when Livor Mortis is occurring it simply pools into the extremities instead of one specific location, with the fingers and bottom of the foot being the most severe. To add to the veins popping suddenly the subtle bruising through origin points to where the red vein-y look begins remind me of my own experience of having four veins burst in my arm. 

Julian had reason to believe he could use leeches to treat the plague and in typical plague doctor fashion of “They were right but not exactly” he was on the right track! Using leeches to drink the settled and dead blood would be beneficial to the patient. As likely leaving these areas to accumulate dead blood would put it at serious risk of rot, since maggots first grow on open wounds and areas affected by Livor Mortis. 

Julian might not have been curing the plague but what he was probably doing is preventing a lot of people from developing gangrene and needing amputations. A beneficial skill for a previous combat medic to utilize and what might have drawn additional attention to him. Julian’s uses of leeches could also explain why Lucio does not have any of these red marks since Julian is his personal doctor and Lucio would spare no expense for his treatment. 

Lucio’s Unique Symptoms 

Portia’s route mentions that due to Lucio’s longer surviving time he developed unique symptoms. We don’t know much details about this besides he was extra miserable and was confined to his bedroom most the time. From my provided list above I think that generally speaking the Red Plague is a combination of Bubonic + Septicemic plagues.

However, Pnuemonic plagues were considered especially deadly, but rarer. Lucio is described as having a cough when he has the plague and generally a wheezy voice. It wouldn’t be odd to think the plague had spread into his lungs due to the increase longevity he had. 

There is a dramatic irony in Lucio losing his lungs to sickness as well. Morga tells us about how when Lucio was very young he almost drowned and that instilled a fear of death in him at a young age. He’s also a man with a lot of stamina who can run in the freezing cold carrying a fully grown apprentice on his shoulder or run away from Morga who also possesses a lot of energy. Lucio has trained his lungs to be stronger more so than the average person, and now with his downfall he loses them. 

It goes along with his general want of having a new body as well. You can rebuild muscle mass although hard, but recovering from illnesses that target your lungs? You’ll almost never get back to the same degree you previously were. 

The imagery of the dead is also present in the animal itself used to spread the plague. Although the beetle comes from Lucio’s tribe, beetles play a role in decomposition. Beetles like to come after the body has been nearly completely rotten, after the maggots and wasps consume most of the dead flesh beetles come in and eat the scraps. Beetles are also used in skeletonizing items, one example I think of off my head is a man who had his amputated foot skeletonized by beetles for keeping.  So these beetles are coming in and spreading a plague that forces the body to go through stages of decay while living, for their own food. Just like Lucio’s tribe came in and slaughtered other tribes for their own need to eat.

The plague was handcrafted to torture Lucio for his inability to finish his end of the deal. That’s why it uses imagery of dead bodies, it steals Lucio’s lungs from him, and why even the dead can cause severe damage. 

Of course this is all my own theory and analysis of the plague but thank you for reading all of this. 

[veebs-hates-video-games]

I don't know why, but I also grabbed Torchlight 2 while it was on sale, even though I already played part of it on my computer a while ago and quit like halfway through act 2 because I wasn't having fun.

I played the first game a while ago on my potato of a MacBook, and it was pretty decent but not amazing. The most impressive thing was how well it ran on such bad hardware, especially considering that Apple didn't (and still doesn't) give two shits about games. Ok that's not fair, they don't even give half a shit. Probably around that time someone I knew at school found a reproducible crash bug in Apple's OpenGL driver, like one that actually affected commercially released games on the platform. Not only did he file a bug report, he tracked down the patch that fixed it in Intel's open source Linux driver and included that too. They never fixed it in the next few years, and probably it was still broken by the time they dropped OpenGL entirely. I could go on for a while about how poorly they supported stuff like that or how many decisions they've made that hurt game devs, especially indie ones, but...

Anyway, TL1 was kinda fun, but also it was extremely easy with the class/skill I ended up using. Based on that I defaulted to the highest difficulty on the second game, and at some point I just gave up because it apparently doesn't change anything at all beyond making enemies have tons of health and do more damage, so it was taking forever to kill things without a super optimized build.

This time around I just left it on normal so I could do my usual thing of messing around with weird combinations of things because they're silly, and it's much better. I have two characters further than I ever got before, and they're both much more fun.

The story and writing are incredibly uninspiring, to the degree that it's one of those rare games where I'm barely paying attention to the dialogue and just skim it and skip past. I just completely do not care about anything at all that's going on.

The art style generally works well though. I prefer it to the grimdark stuff that plagues the ARPG genre because of the first two Diablo games (which I just can't get into at all). It's cartoony and colorful, with flashy effects all over when you use your fancy skills.

And it's just fairly satisfying, in a brainless sort of way, to run around murdering endless hordes of whatever it is I'm fighting.

I do still have some issues with it though. Let me respec everything whenever I want, and make it free or very cheap. Don't force me to commit to stuff when I can't tell if it's going to suck or not in such a long game. Magic find is still a terrible stat, and Diablo is terrible for inflicting it on the genre. Needing to identify items before using them adds zero interesting decision-making and is a relic of the past.

(The only game I can think of off the top of my head where unidentified items genuinely created interesting situations was Nethack, which I don't particularly like playing but which has really fascinating system interactions. It has tons of really powerful items you can stumble across early if you're lucky, but also some (literally) cursed ones that can ruin your day...and you're allowed to use unidentified items. In a game with permadeath that can get really interesting. If you're stuck and don't think you can make it past where you are you can just try your best and hope you can work something out, or you can try out one of those items you haven't been able to identify yet and hope putting on that ring or drinking that potion doesn't just straight up kill you...and that you can figure out what it does do in time to take advantage of it. See, that is interesting gameplay decisions resulting from a system like that. "Oops you ran out of identify scrolls and have to wait until you're back in town to see what this does and then wear or sell it" is just extra busywork and extremely uninteresting in comparison.)

Uh, anyway...Torchlight 2 is alright. I might even finish it this time if I haven't burned myself out on it playing so much the past few days while I've been feeling crummy and needed something relatively brainless to pass the time. And maybe some day I'll get around to talking about Grim Dawn, which I find aesthetically less appealing but which does nearly everything else so much better. I'm pretty sure I've spent more time theorycrafting for that game than I've spent playing most other games...

[snowkatze]

These Violent Delights

Link to ao3: These Violent Delights Genre: angst and fluff Word Count: 4357 Summary: Simon is watching 'Romeo and Juliet' in Magic History and he watches Baz write something on a paper. Later, Simon finds the paper and sees that Baz wrote a romantic sonnet. Who is he in love with? Includes one quote from Wayward Son but no spoilers. There’s also quotes  from 'How Do I Love Thee? (Sonnet 43)' by Elizabeth Barrett Browning, '[i carry your heart with me(i carry it in]' by e.e. cummings, 'Love Sonnet XI' by Pablo Neruda and 'Annabel Lee' by Edgar Allen Poe, and 'Romeo and Juliet' by William Shakespeare.

___

Leonardo DiCaprio is one gorgeous bastard. I've always thought so, when I was watching Titanic with Agatha during the Christmas holidays. (I think she wanted me to hold her hand. Maybe she wanted me to see what an epic romance looks like. I missed the cue. On both accounts.) He also makes one hell of a Romeo. Like, I get why Juliet would lay down her life for him. He's wearing a medieval knight costume to a party on screen. He's got a cheap fake sword, too, but unfortunately, he's not using it. It's not really that interesting, right now. Nobody's getting stabbed. Juliet is so enamored with Romeo. She's such a fool, really. Baz' hair is blocking the corner of the screen. It's fluffed up and soft on top of his head.

I've stabbed goblins, trolls, merwolves, a dragon, once... I've never been to a party. Baz would look good in a knight costume. Or with angels wings. Demons wings, maybe. Is that a thing?

Baz is taking notes, because of course he is. Even when we're watching a movie in class. Penny's right next to me, she's not taking notes. I'm not taking notes. I mean, we all know the story, right? Romeo and Juliet fall in love, their families have a feud that any Family Feud host would keel over because of, in the end they kill each other or something... Baz turns his head, and I can see that his hair falls in a swoop over his forehead. How tragic... Maybe I'll end up stabbing Baz. I just hope he'll - ...

I really should have held Agatha's hand when I had the chance.

I try to drag my gaze back to the screen, but the top of Baz' head is pretty distracting. Maybe he sat in front of me on purpose, so I couldn't see. He knows damn well how tall he is.

Baz is well fit – I mean – Romeo is – I mean – Juliet. No, Agatha. I like Agatha. Merlin, what is wrong with me?

Romeo's not that fit, obviously. I mean, in a way, yeah. In a, I'd like to have arms that strong, way. In a, I'd like to have eyes that bloody gorgeous, what the hell? The director's called Baz, apparently. I didn't know there were people called Baz. Not so unique now, are you, Baz? I guess he's not actually called Baz. I don't suppose there's anyone else called Tyrannus Basilton bloody Grimm-Pitch. Bummer. Baz would make a great director, for sure. He's great at yelling people and ordering them around, for starters. He's also great at everything. Wow, they're talking for so long. Someone stab me. Crowley, his hair is so nice. I want - I want his shampoo. What the fuck is he writing? Is he already doing the homework? Sneaky bastard. Maybe I should call him out. Maybe I should start on the homework.

I start poking Penny with a pencil.

“Sod off,” she says.

I turn back to the screen. There's some argument. Two of the guys start punching each other, Romeo tries to go between them...

“Who's that?” I whisper to Penny. “Tybalt and Mercucio,” she whispers back. “Merlin, have you been watching at all?” A scratch? What is happening? Is this guy dying? My eyes are drawn to the screen. Suddenly, I feel unusually cold.

'A plague on both your houses...' he says... I grip the sleeve of my sweater. I watch as Mercucio dies, I watch as Romeo gets revenge on Tybalt... I watch Romeo and Juliet in the chapel... Baz sits up straight. He has stopped writing. I watch as Romeo drinks posion, thinking Juliet is dead... As Juliet reaches out for him... I thought Romeo's eyes were blue before, but in the close-up of his face when he's dying, they look kind of grey, almost like Baz'... I grip my sleeve tighter. I watch as Juliet shoots herself. But I can't watch the back of Baz' head anymore. I focus on the other corner of the screen and don't look away until the bell rings. What's wrong with dancing and parties? The screen goes black and my gaze snaps back to Baz.

Why does someone always has to get stabbed?

He's shoving his stuff in his backpack, all except for the paper he'd been writing on. He crumples it and throws it in the trashcan by the door. I keep looking at the door, even after he's gone. “Simon?” It's not an inevitability, is it? Romeo and Juliet, dying...

“Simon?” I mean, I knew, of course. Everyone knows. Romeo and Juliet die in the end.

“Simon.” It couldn't go any other way. “Simon!”

I snap my head around. Penny is looking at me. Why is she looking at me? “Simon, are you – crying?” Her eyes turn soft now. I try to unclench my jaw.

“No, I -”

I unclench my hand and touch my cheek. My fingers come back wet. Oh.

“It was just...” I start. “Just such a sad story.”

“It's Romeo and Juliet,” she says. “It's the sad story.” “I know,” I say. “I was expecting it, ob– obviously. But it still – still hit me like a ton of bricks.”

A truckload of bricks. A mountain of them. Even though I was expecting it.

I'm overwhelmed with the urge to count the days left until the end of the school year. How many days before...

I shoot up out of my seat. “How many hours til lunch?” I say and smile at Penny. She smiles back, but I can tell she's still cautious.

“You can't go a minute without thinking about food, can you?” she says and we start walking out of the class room. She tells me about what sentences from Shakespeare she thinks you can still make spells out of. She doesn't notice when I stop at the door. No one's left in the class room. No one sees when I duck down and pick up the crumpled paper Baz put in the bin and shove it in my pocket.

I catch up with Penny.

So, that was that for Magic History. I grab the strap of my backpack a little tighter than I usually would.

I think I'll have sour cherry scones for lunch.

___

After last period, I go to the restroom and perch myself up on the toilet seat. With jittery hands, I pull the crumpled paper from my pocket. I unfold it carefully, then close my eyes. Why did Baz throw this away? It can't just be notes, then. Baz wouldn't throw away his notes, unless he'd copied them carefully into his notebook before. Whatever is on this paper, Baz didn't want anyone to see. It's probably nothing. Just scribbles or maybe a sketch. I shouldn't do this, right? But – it's Baz.

I open my eyes and read. I am your Petrarchan sonnet, you are my Shakespearean tragedy

We are no star-crossed lovers but (You were the sun and I was crashing into you)

Ne'er dare there escape me no greater sigh and ne'er there be a lost soul more forlorn than me, gazing into thy pale blue eye, thou art my most cherished oxy-moron I call you tedious fool though the only fool is me you are my downfall (it's not the only way I fall) How unfair for thy image to be fair

Sanguine, for thy hope, for I am out for blood I will bear this burden, for I am bare

to the snow that burns me, the words that cut I wish we could run, my love runs deep, Fearing how soon we will run out of time Thy face when thou say'st 'wow' makes me say 'woe' I, your antithesis, thou art my rhyme There's no reason Stake my heart, deliver thy killing blow Upend me with bronze curls, torturous lips When thou bitest thy thumb but never thy lips Upend me with smiles, the beauty thou art, fuck you and curse what thou doth to my heart I read it twice. Except for the words he's crossed out, I don't really know what it means. But I do recognize the form and rhyme scheme. We talked about it in Magic History just last week. It's a sonnet. We're watching Shakespeare, and what does Baz do? Write a fucking sonnet. The pretentious arsehole. The complete wanker. Maybe it's a coded message and this is the key to uncovering one of Baz' plots. That would make sense of the fucking gibberish it is. Maybe someone else was meant to pick it up out of the bin. But there'd be easier ways if he wanted to pass something on to Dev or Niall. Maybe he meant for me to find it. No.

I don't fully understand, but my throat runs dry when I read it again. I feel cold again and I bite my lip because I feel like I'll make some noise otherwise. Love. He crossed it out, but it's still there. Baz is talking about love. Aleister Crowley.

Baz doesn't love anyone, or anything. He's a vampire. They can't. Maybe he was making fun of sonnets. Or of Romeo and Juliet. It could be like – creative writing. Fictional. Unreal. But it just feels a little too – honest.

Baz loves his mother. He talks about her like she hung the moon. He loves playing football. He's so fucking good at it, too. He loves school, he puts his entire soul into it. (He has a soul.) He eats Salt and Vinegar Crisps at night.

Crowley. He's in love with someone. No. He's tragically in love with someone. I don't know what to think.

Who? Who would Baz Pitch write tragic sonnets about? Who does he love so much? Is it Agatha? It has to be Agatha. Maybe he thinks he can't be with her. Crowley, why does he make it sound like such a tragedy? He's in love. He should be soaring. He should be happy. He could have anyone. (Well. Not anyone. But it's not like he wants me.) I realize I've hidden here for quite some time; Penny will be worried. I fold the paper carefully in put it back in my pocket. I make my way into the dining hall. Penny is frowning at me, but she's saved me some sour cherry scones.

“Where were you?” she asks.

“What's a Petrarchan sonnet?” I reply.

She pushes the plate with the scones to me.

“They're usually about unrequited love,” her frown deepens. “And they often include oxymorons.” Unrequited love... Baz is in unrequited love? Impossible.

I know what a Shakespearen tragedy is, obviously. It's the plays that don't have a happy ending. The ones that are... tragic. “Oxymoron,” I say. “What's that?”

“It's a self-contradiction. Loving hate, and that kind of stuff. Why? You need help studying? We can meet up later.” “No, it's fine,” I say and start picking one of the scones apart. “Was just wondering.” I am your antithesis... your opposite... Agatha isn't Baz' opposite anything. They're both posh and fancy. Only that Agatha's nice, and Baz is not. (Too much, anyway.)

Stake my heart... That's so dark. Why would Baz write stuff like that? He can have the dances, and the parties, and the fool-headed love. He can have everything.

I wonder why he's underlined the 'moron' in 'oxymoron'. Is he calling them a moron? Maybe they're thick... Baz probably thinks anyone not as smart as him is a moron. That could be anyone, except for Penny.

I've pulled the scone into tiny pieces. I'm not hungry right now, which never happens. But I don't need to eat. I need to know who Baz is in love with. I need to.

“Simon?” Penny says. She's frowning again. “Are you alright? You're not eating?” No.

“Of course. I just, uhm... Need to get some homework done.” “Are you keeping something from me? Remember, no secrets.” “It's... It's not my secret, okay? Just trust me.” If I showed Penny, she could figure out for sure who it's about. But for some reason, I don't want to. Baz is not in the dining room.

___

Baz is sitting on the bed, and all I can think is that he's in love with someone, and he writes sonnets about them, and he calls them moron and the sun and beautiful.

And he thinks he's going to run out of time.

Baz is a hopeless romantic. I didn't think he was before, but now I can see him on candlelight dinners, with roses on Valentine's day, Baz going to the movies, Baz holding hands... Baz has long, slim fingers and his hands are rough and beautiful. Beautiful. I wonder if I could write a sonnet. Not a fancy one, but...

“Baz,” I say and clear my throat.

He looks up from his book and cocks an eyebrow at me.

“Get lost,” he says.

“I just – I -” I pull the paper from my pocket. He drops his book and his eyes widen. He must know what it is, even before I've shown him what it is.

“Where'd you get that?” he demands, but his voice is shaking. He sits up and walks towards me. Not confidently, like usually. His gaze flickers around. His hand reaches out, but he doesn't grab it. (Juliet's hand reaches out...) “I just – I found it -”

“Crowley, Snow, you ever hear of privacy?” Usually, he would snarl at me. Usually, he would just grab the paper from me. I've never seen him lose composure like this.

“Who is it?” I say. My voice is shaking, too. Suddenly, his face snaps shut and his hand shoots forward. I let him take it. It's his. (I know it half by heart.)

“None of your business. None of this is.” “Who is it about?” “Nobody.” He stalks back to his bed, conversation over. Not for me.

“Tell me.” “No.” “Please.”

He stops talking and picks up his book. I know he's trying to ignore me, but I'm not going to let up. I can't. “Why do you even care?” He's not giving me an inch.

The arch of his brow is perfectly formed.

Romeo kills Juliet's cousin. Doesn't that make him a villain, of sorts? It was self-defense, in a way, but still. Shouldn't she hate him? But she loves him anyway... She's such a fool.

“I think you should tell them.” “Have you read the poem at all?” “It's not...” I say. Swallow. “I think you're wrong.” “I'm never wrong.” “Agatha and I aren't together anymore, if you're worried about that.” He's staring at me. His mouth is hanging open. It's Agatha. It has to be.

“Simon...”

“It's Agatha, isn't it?” I feel like crying. His jaw snaps shut.

“Merlin, no,” he says. Is he denying it? No. I think he's serious. (He's giving me an inch.)

“I just... I just think you have a chance.” Agatha doesn't have blue eyes, or bronze curls. I don't know why I didn't think of it earlier. Who has blue eyes and bronze curls? “I don't,” he says. “Did you tell them?” “Ha.”

“Then how do you know?” “I just do. Leave me alone.” He turns away. I won't let him.

“I just want to help. Let me help.”

“Snow.” He sounds so exhausted. Of course he is. He's yearning for someone.

“You don't understand anything.” I want him to call me Simon again. I want to go over to his bed and – do – something. I sit on my own bed and growl at him.

“Maybe I could ask them,” I say. “What they think about you.”

“Merlin, Snow, you want to be my wingman?” “I guess.” “You're ridiculous.” “I'm right.”

Call me Simon.

“We're not even friends.” Right. But not even my worst enemy should be so – so desperately in love. It must hurt so much. (It hurts so much.)

“We could be.” “Don't be insane.” I wonder why he's not picking a fight with me. He's dismissive, but not vicious. I think I've made him vulnerable.

“I'm not going to fight you,” I say then. I'm not going to cry again. I won't. I draw my knees to my chest.

“Of course you're going to fight me,” Baz says. His voice is almost soft.

“You're not going to run out of time,” I whisper. “Is that why it's a tragedy? Because you think you're going to die? You won't. I won't let you.” “Simon,” he says.

Stop calling me Simon. I'm going to cry.

“Are you having me on? Do you really not know who it is?” “No.”

“Are you trying to spare me...” “What?” “Nevermind. Not even Bunce could figure it out?” “I didn't show her.” “Then stop thinking about it.”

“I cant,” I say. Baz' whole face is tense.

“Just pretend this never happened. Treat me the same as before. It doesn't matter. It doesn't change anything.”

It does, though.

“It's not just your poem,” I say. “I just... I don't want us to be Romeo and Juliet.”

“Do you even hear yourself?” “You know what I mean. I don't – I don't want to hurt you.”

“These violent delights...”

I flinch. These violent delights have violent ends is a forbidden spell. When someone is fighting, it kills or heavily wounds both parties. Baz curls in on himself on his bed, but he keeps his gaze fixed on me. “I don't want to fight you. Are you going to fight me?” I ask.

He pauses and keeps looking at me.

“You really haven't figured it out, have you? Crowley, you're such a moron.” A moron? My breath hitches. No. What am I thinking? What the hell am I thinking?

“Who is it?” I say again. “Who's your downfall? Your rhyme? The bloody sun?” He closes his eyes, lips drawn together.

“Stop mocking me,” he rasps out.

“I'm not. Please. I just want to know.”

He opens his eyes a crack and sighs and I know that he's giving in. I'm holding my breath.

“It's you, you fucking numpty.”

I freeze. Everything freezes. I must have misheard. I must have a brain disease. It's impossible. (But I have blue eyes. And I guess my hair could be described as bronze. And if anyone's going to end Baz, it's me. Nobody's going to end Baz.)

“The snow that burns me...” he whispers. “It's your fucking name.”

Baz is not in love with someone else. Thank fuck. Thank Merlin. Thank Aleister fucking Crowley. I can't do anything but stare at him. Baz shakes his head.

“I never should have written that stupid sonnet. But... I couldn't help myself. It was Romeo and Juliet.”

I'm his Shakespearen tragedy. Nicks and slicks.

I sit up and am over on his bed in an instant. He looks alarmed.

“Snow – don't,” he says quietly. He's laid his heart in my palm. He's written a sonnet about me.

“Lets do this, then,” I whisper. I want to lean in and kiss him.

“Do what? What are you talking about?”

He looks like he wants to scoot away from me, but he doesn't move. I want to grab him by the shoulders and never let go.

“Today in class, all I could think about was you,” I say.

I want to let go of his shoulders to bury my hands in his hair.

“About how much you want to kill me?” he says, a self-deprecating tone in his voice.

“No. About how I don't want to kill you. Mostly about your hair.” “What about my hair?” He touches it self-consciously. I want to take every bad thought out of his brain and throw them to the merwolves.

“About how I want to touch your hair.” I lean closer.

“About how you're more beautiful than Romeo.” I carefully raise my hand. He doesn't move away. His hair is so soft.

“About how Juliet is a fool for being in love with a villain.” His eyes are so beautiful. He lets me take his hand.

“But he's not a villain,” I whisper. “Not really.” “Snow,” he says stiffly. “You do know – that Romeo and Juliet is a cautionary tale.”

“If it's really – if you're really – then I don't care. Is it really about me?” I lean in even closer until my nose nearly touches his. Does he want this? Do I want this? I do. So much. For how long have I wanted this?

“Yes,” he chokes out. “Of course it's you. Who else would it be?” “How? How can you -”

I want him to lean forward. I'm so short of grabbing him by his shirt. And then he gives me another one of these sighs, and I know that I have him. Just give me the word. Just give me the word, and you can have it all.

“How do I love thee?” he says and his hand comes up. My nose brushes against his. “Let me count the ways.” He runs his fingers through my hair. It's so good.

“I love thee to the depth and breadth and height my soul can reach,” he says.

He's reciting poetry at me. Merlin.

“And this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart,” he mutters. “I carry your heart. I carry it in my heart.” His lips are cool against mine. I press into him. I want him to have it all. I want to put my heart on a platter and let him take it.

“I crave your mouth, your voice, your hair,” he says. It's like he's singing. “I want to eat the sunbeam flaring in your  lovely body. I want to eat your skin like a whole almond.” Is that a vampire thing? I don't care, he can have it all. “Our love it was stronger by far than the love of those who were older than we, of many far wiser than we,” he says. He's singing into my mouth. “And neither the angels in heaven above nor the demons down under the sea,” his breath goes heavy, “can ever dissever my soul from the soul of the beautiful Simon Snow.”

His voice is enchanting. I grab him and pull. I want to tie our hearts together. Chamber by chamber.

“What's in a name?” he says. “That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.”

It's Romeo and Juliet.

“With love's light wings did I o'erperch these walls, for stony limits cannot hold love out, and what love can do, that dares love attempt: Therefore thy kinsmen are no stop to me.”

“Do you mean that?” “Yes. I mean it all. The Mage, his men, my family, no one can stop me. No spell can stop me. No sword.”

“You need to stop,” I say, but I'm smiling. “You're going to make me cry.”

That only spurs him on, of course. Baz has always loved making me cry.

“My bounty is as boundless as the sea, my love as deep; the more I give to thee, the more I have, for both are infinite.”

I'm addicted to his lips, and to the smell of cedar and bergamot.

“Dost thou love me?” he says then and pulls back a little to look at me. There's a question in his eyes. And I don't know any poetry by heart. (But I want to give him everything.) I make a noise in the back of my throat and try to think of something stupidly romantic to say. He's reciting love poetry at me. He wrote me a sonnet. He's given me every love confession there is. How am I supposed to top that?

Baz' lips turn down at the corners.

“Sorry,” he says, squeezing my hand. “I got carried away. You don't need to answer.”

He goes in for another kiss, but I put my hands to his chest and push him away.

“Sorry,” he says again. “It's just part of the play. I forgot myself.” He swallows and looks down. If I took every single dark thought of his, the merwolves could have a feast. I grab his face and he looks back up at me. His heart is in my hands. He's so eloquent, he knows a thousand ways to say that he loves me. He loves me. He loves me. I can't believe I've never thought of this before. (Maybe I have.) It's the best idea ever.

I only have one word.

“Yes.” “What?

“Yes, I dost love thou.” He smiles.

“That is so not how it works,” he says.

“Then how?” “I can't remember,” he says and giggles. Aleister Crowley. He's my Romeo.

“Do we have to be a tragedy?” I say and pull him in again. “You think?” “No,” he says and laughs. It's the most beautiful sound. “We can be anything you want us to be. I could cast a sonnet right now.”

“You wrote one. You wrote me a sonnet. That's embarrassing.”

I laugh, too.

“Shut up,” he says. I'd cross every line for him. And I embrace him and his hair tickles my neck and I tell him to talk poetry to me and deep into the night he whispers sweet everythings into my ear. I'm a fool for him. I'll take him to the school dance. I'll put him in a costume. I'll keep him safe and sound. I'll hold his hand. I'll run my fingers through his hair.

I refuse to believe we're star-crossed lovers.

This time, I believe, the stars are aligning just right.

[caithyra]

Vampire Game Reviews Part 1

This Halloween I sat down and played a bunch of vampire themed games and decided to review them. First up, Vampire Legends: The True Story of Kisilova, Dracula: Origin and Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines. I might get around to Vampire the Masquerade: Redemption and Dracula: Love Kills in a later post.

I use my own 5-scale gradation in this:

0: Either I couldn’t force myself to finish it, or I was more relieved it was over than anything else. 1: I had no fun, but there might have been something fun in there… maybe…? 2: More bad than good. 3: About evenly good and bad. I actually start having more fun than not. 4: A solid entertainment piece. Has it’s blemishes, but despite that I like it. 5: Almost perfect (perfection is a myth). I had lots of fun and am satisfied.

(Semi-minor spoilers below. Unless you’ve gone quite far into the games, you likely wont suss out what’s happening until it’s happening.)

Vampire Legends: The True Story of Kisilova: You’re an investigator for the Hapsburg Empire going to the small town of Kisilova, recently beset by a killer leaving bloodless victims behind them. Rumors of vampires abound. After a series of mishaps the rumors do not feel so farfetched. Especially not when a mysterious, young woman enters the picture.

(Left: The Beginning of the Adventure with our buddy and hint machine. Right: The first of many, many hidden objects screens in this game.)

Okay, it is a point-and-click visual novel adventure thing that’s really short (less than 5 hours, and I think I left the game — and the clock — running for a while at some point), and also cheap. It was enjoyable enough, the music was forgettable but good enough, the graphics nice and atmospheric enough and the story was short and serviceable. The problems mainly came through the game-play; this game relied faaar too heavily on hidden object minigames, and those were unskippable, while all others were skippable after a short while. Fortunately, your partner can give hints to speed things along. As for my final decision in the winter-themed bonus chapter? Well, it was Halloween so I thought “why not?” and that was that for Europe. I always try to pick the most supernatural decision whenever I can lol (see Squirrel Elves in the Witcher franchise, or picking spell-sneaking classes in the Elder Scrolls).

My biggest problem with this game, however, is that I need to resize the resolution on my ultrawide monitor to play it without horizontal stretching distorting the art. The Options menu is seriously lacking in Options (actually, that whole menu is a mess that looks more at home in a Free-to-Play mobile game).

All in all, I generally liked it and its short nature meant that except for the hidden objects minigame, most of it didn’t outstay its welcome and it was really cheap (less than 4€ when I bought it, which is about the right price IMO. I think regular price is something like 9.99€?) so worth it. 3/5.

Dracula: Origin: You are Van Helsing. Yeah. That guy. And you have a missing friend, Harker, who had something to do with Dracula, and you have a pretty friend named Mina who ends up targeted by Dracula and now you must rush across the Old World to save her from a curse.

(Left: Yup, same dev as the Sherlock Holmes games. Middle: Vampires don’t like garlic breath. Right: Dammit Mina, I gave you ONE job. One. Job. All of this slow walking could have been avoided!)

Ah. Frogware. I generally like their Sherlock Holmes games, but this game… It felt more like a waste of my time. Oh, I’m sure there is a good game in there that isn’t a waste of time. Unfortunately, it is hidden behind the biggest time-sinks in the game: Van Helsing walks at half the speed of a normal person at all times and speaks really slowly, in conversations that has no branches, yet they will periodically be interrupted so that you can click on the next topic in the list (that wont reveal the next topic until you’ve listened to the topic listed before it). There’s this scene during a cave in when he says something like “quickly, we must make haste to escape!” and then you click on the exit and he waaaaaaaaalks slooooooooooooowlyyyyyy through it. It certainly doesn’t help that he must cross the entire span of the screen and backtrack locations many times and… AGH! RUN YOU FOOL!!

And, well, Frogware adventure game with its strange clues and non-clues and objects. There’s this bit in the first outdoor area when you have to capture some flies. Now, if you have followed the story logically, you will have a jar and a lid in your inventory. Easy, peasy, just click the flies with the jar, right? Nope. You must find a mourning veil hidden in the cemetery (that is large and that Van Helsing waaaaalks sloooooowlyyyyy through), use it on the flies and then combine the fly-ridden veil with the jar to get a jar of flies (I wont say what for because of spoilers, but, well, I don’t recommend eating during the Cemetery/Mansion part of the story if you have a phobia against bugs). There are also several objects that are basically five pixels on the screen because of the angle we’re viewing them at that we must find to pick up, and on the whole, I had more frustrations than fun with this story. Like, there’s even this puzzle minigame with a picture of Minos, the Labyrinth and the Minotaur and you find thread/string in the same house and wouldn’t you know it! The thread/string has nothing to do with the minigame and the minigame has nothing to do with the legend of the Minotaur!

On top of that, well, lets just say that the Egyptian section has quite a bit of stereotyping (think Victorian stereotypes of Egypt and its people in a modern game. Also, potential racism against white people must be prevented at all costs, including lying to a bereaved family), and when we run into our first, unliving female vampire she of course wears a top made of strips of cloth and a sheer skirt (you’d think a rich vampire’s favorite mistress would own a nice dress at least, but nope), and every woman (including dead of non-vampiric variety) have their beauty commented upon (and, of course, a young, pretty girl’s defilement/death is a tragedy, which is why it is so important to include that she was pretty).

And, well, this game markets itself heavily with Dracula at the forefront, not Van Helsing, yet while Dracula is the main antagonist, he only has a few, brief scenes, which were disappointing. All in all it was a 1/5.

Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines: You are a fledgling of one of the Camarilla clans, recently thrust into the secret world hidden by darkness, and more specifically into one of the most fucked cities of the World of Darkness. After your illicit embrace into the undead by your executed sire, the Prince of the City has graciously offered to adopt you, provided you prove yourself worthy to the exacting clan of rulers. Except the prince’s domain is built on quicksand, and this is Los Angeles; the birthplace of the modern Anarchs, and one of the domains of the Kindred of the East, on top of the eternal, political dance all Kindred must dance, and you, baby vampire as you are, have no allies and no clue as how to proceed except to survive.

(Left: Told ya Velvet is a mascot in this game. Middle: Did you know that Mercurio was meant to handle the Voerman sisters and we wouldn’t have to go through sewers and a haunted hotel if he did his job? Right: Apparently the Chinese are masters of Japanese swords and the Ventrue need no neckbones...)

Here’s the thing about VtM:B: It is a very enjoyable game and definitely the definite vampire game out there. It also has no story for your character. “What about the Ankaran Sarcophagus?”, well, your character participates, but it does nothing to answer the questions we are immediately confronted with in the opening of the game: Why would our unknown sire, an upstanding member of Kindred society, break one of the Traditions (pretty much laws set in stone for all Kindred over the entire world) to embrace us? Why would the prince, whose sole job is to uphold the Traditions, then break one of the Traditions and allow the ill-begotten progeny live?

Except for the opening of the game, we never hear from our sire again, nor the questions raised during the opening. And that makes our player character a bit superfluous when any random neonate could serve just as well.

So if not story-telling, what does VtM:B do that makes people sing its praises? In short? Characters and the World. It is incredibly atmospheric and while characters don’t develop (vampires are static by nature in this world, and most characters in the game are entrenched in their places and wont be shaken by some random baby vampire showing up), they are all very distinct and written in different tones. However, if you’re not role-playing as an ignorant fledgling, but meta-playing with some Vampire the Masquerade lore known, you will feel extremely railroaded (if your character had any inkling of who Smiling Jack is in the World of Darkness, they would never believe his coarse but kind uncle-figure thing he’s got going on. Because even before a certain hugely Biblical spoiler got involved, Jack was an imposer, liar, manipulator and mass-murderer who has sired many, many thin-blooded vampires and abandoned them to their fates. There’s a reason why only ignorant neonates like Nines’ gang admires and likes him. What I just said is not a spoiler for the game, btw, because it never comes up because your character is an ignorant fledgling being manipulated and deceived by literally everyone. Maybe Velvet and Bertram don’t, but Velvet might seem so sweet when she convinces you to be her knight because of Presence and acting, and Bertram is a Nossie and they have major secrets within secrets).

And while it is easy to sink into the world of the game and roleplay, thus mitigating the railroading feeling above. This game was clearly written with an audience of White Male Teens in mind. We have Velvet (of the fashion-conscious Toreador clan) show up at the prince’s court in Elysium in only a lacy basque, g-string and thigh high fishnets, tall heels and not as much as a peignoir thrown on top. Yeah, she attends an important society function in her fetish underwear. Then we have the explicit sex life of game cover-girl Jeanette (yeah, the one dressed like a dilapidated school girl), and those two are THE female mascots of the game.

The less said about the Orientalism and the Kindred of the East the better, but that segues into how around the time you reach Chinatown, the game starts losing its luster and strengths. Okay, so if you’re sensitive to that kinda thing, you might notice it a little bit in Hollywood, but by the time Chinatown rolls around, you might notice how it is less immersive and how it starts to feel more and more gamey (specifically, Action gamey), and you get less options that isn’t some variant of “kill it”.

On top of that the game has technical issues if you do not use the fan-made patch (I always use Patch Plus, which restores cut content and quests, as well as ReShade for better anti-aliasing and sharpness), and it still has a few cropping up from time to time. At least it works perfectly well in ultrawide resolutions?

Still it has that charm, and despite its flaws and how I can think of a dozen complaints at the drop of a dime, I still love playing it. So it’s a 4/5 from me.

[rpgmgames]

October’s Featured Game: Konstandin

DEVELOPER(S): Team Galanx ENGINE: RPGMaker VX Ace   GENRE: Horror, Exploration, Romance, Mystery, Drama SUMMARY: One year has passed since the 26 year old Rinor Avdiu and his wife Aulona moved to a village called Buroja. The couple tends to live a relatively happy marital life, though the village seems to have an old eerie legend in which Rinor is unconsciously taking part in. The legend of a cursed knight, called Konstandin. The story revolves around Rinor who tries to find the meaning behind it, while he faces deep mental and horrific challenges.

Download the demo here!

Introduce yourself!  *Hello, we are a small indie gamedev team named Galanx.The project we are working on is called Konstandin, a storydriven rpgmaker game of the horror, mystery, exploration genre. It's taking a while, but everyone grows at their own pace and we're not giving in to the pressure of time. :)

What is your project about? What inspired you to create your game initially? *Team Galanx: So, Nouin and Alma who are core members of Team Galanx are also siblings. They both always had creative fuel boiling inside and were generally passionate about drawing, gaming, well thought out stories. One day, Nouin discovered an engine called Rpgmaker VX Ace and saw all the possibilities it offered to make an enjoyable game.

They had to buy it. So that's what happened.

One evening, they were brainstorming while enjoying a traditional Albanian dish together... then it hit them! Albanian. Traditional. Their native folklore was so rich, yet very few people knew about it. Why not use this as an opportunity to tell the world an amazing story, inspired directly from their roots?

A story they might have never heard of, but which possibly all could relate to.

And so, it was decided. Their main inspiration would be: "Besa e Konstandinit"

But of course, telling the original story wouldn't leave any room for curiosity. So Nouin and Alma had the idea of creating a modern setting where other characters would be included. This way the players could enjoy two sides, that'd be connected through the legend of Konstandin. One filled with first world problems and one where you'll have to face real problems.

How long have you been working on your project? *Team Galanx: We've been working on it for 4 years, but not consistently.

Did any other games or media influence aspects of your project? *Team Galanx: Plenty of them. But it's not like we can pin down one exact source. It might've been a historical albanian documentary, a novel, a horror game, the howling of the wind, nature, people, memories of the war, the news on TV, native fables etc.

Have you come across any challenges during development? How have you overcome or worked around them?   *Team Galanx: There were various challenges and there still are, but as long as you take the time to work it out and not let yourself drown in self pity then it'll get better. There's no easy way if you decide to work on a big project.

Each member will have a schedule, personal affairs to tend to, or simply not have motivation, so at times the project will fall flat. The key is to communicate and brainstorm to flesh things out and come up with new refreshing ideas until you feel that what you're working on, is worth sharing with the world.

Much like how everybody likes to show their babies around. Basically, make the project your baby and nurture it, then any challenge or hardship will seem minor.

Have any aspects of your project changed over time? How does your current project differ from your initial concept? *Team Galanx: Our core idea is still there, but the entire game has gotten a revamp. Maps, art, dialogue, events, flow of time, voice actors have changed. The sound quality is great and new puzzles/riddles have been added, some unnecessary parts have been removed etc. The storytelling and transitions in general are smoother.

You'll get to see the differences yourself. Time is a great teacher. :)

What was your team like at the beginning? How did people join the team? If you don't have a team, do you wish you had one or do you prefer working alone? *Team Galanx: It's all Nouin's and Alma's fault. Had the basics. Started working. Crafted a few minutes of wonky gameplay and cheesy dialogues.

After their wave of pride and excitement passed, the siblings discovered that the game looked generic as hell, so both had enough and said: Our story is too valuable to be interpreted so weakly. Everything will be custom made!

Amen to that.

With help from the internet they found the third member of Galanx's core team, composer and sound supervisor Frank.

But the greed and zeal for perfection didn't stop there either, so they went hunting for pixel artists and voice actors. Several changes and two demos later, here we are as Team Galanx. Working on a game with custom made graphics, soundtracks, songs, sprites, animated cutscenes and full voice acting. :)

What was the best part of developing the game? *Team Galanx: Seeing everything come together and work even better than what we had initially planned. That satisfaction can't be compared to anything else.

Do you find yourself playing other RPG Maker games to see what you can do with the engine, or do you prefer to do your own thing? *Team Galanx: If we play any, it's mostly for fun. It feels like, if you start analyzing other games you will never be fully immersed in their story nor will you be satisfied with your own project and that'd be a shame on both sides.

We'd rather work on Konstandin with what we already have in mind. :)

Which character in your game do you relate to the most and why? (Alternatively: Who is your favorite character and why?) *Team Galanx: Konstandin and Mona. The reasons contain spoilers, so we'll just say that these two are interesting in their own way.

Looking back now, is there anything that regret/wish you had done differently? *Team Galanx: Some things, yes. But since Konstandin hasn't been finished yet, we have the benefit of going over those regrets/ wishes and working on them.

Once you finish your project, do you plan to explore game's universe and characters further in subsequent projects, or leave it as-is? *Team Galanx: We'd leave it, because it wouldn't make sense to pry further onto Konstandin's universe if Konstandin's issue has been resolved. When we successfully launch our final product, we'd like to focus on another exciting project we have in the backburner.

What do you look most forward to upon/after release? *Team Galanx: The feeling of having made something that others are taking their time to play and hopefully enjoy. Fan reactions, yes. Let's plays. Constructive criticism. Having something to be proud of. Fan art. The end of an era and the start of something new etc.

Is there something you're afraid of concerning the development or the release of your game?  *Team Galanx: Our fears can be summed up to: People not liking our game, bugs, equipment malfunction and the sudden death of a team member. Otherwise all is well.

Question from last month's featured dev (Somnimouse): What kind of stories do you appreciate most in RPG Maker games? For example, do you like ones based off real-life experiences, fantasy elements, or morals? *Team Galanx: A combination of all these would be perfect. A real life story told in a fantasy setting that has a great message to top it off? Sign us up!

Do you have any advice for upcoming devs? *Team Galanx: You make a game to share thousands of creative and morbid ideas that might be floating around in your head all day long. A game is your cake, but everybody can have a piece of it. Some people might throw up from it, others might want more. Wanting more, means they want to experience a piece of your imagination, so let that drive you. If you had no motivation to continue your game and were waiting for a sign, this is it. Go bake that cake.

We mods would like to thank Team Galanx for agreeing to our interview! We believe that featuring the developer and their creative process is just as important as featuring the final product. Hopefully this Q&A segment has been an entertaining and insightful experience for everyone involved! 

Remember to check out Konstandin if you haven’t already! See you next month! 

- Mods Gold & Platinum 

[yladri]

Detailed Character Profile

Tagged by: @cinnamon-suncat

Tagging: @bexli-nelhah, @missmeela, @diskwrite-ffxiv, @nyx-ffxiv, @vhas-ya-ffxiv, @thegildenheart, @anyways-heres-manawall, @laceys-ffxiv-blog, @nesuneofeorzea, @powderburned, @dev-ffxiv, @robotprinzess, @chxsingthemoon, @nahlithehatcat, @rubysiren, @satogokoro-ffxiv, @amarata-xiv

Appearance:

Gender: Female.

Race: Miqo’te, Seeker of the Sun.

Height: 5′5.

Weight: 195 ponze.

Eye Color: Bright green.

Hair Color: Red.

The Facts:

Nameday: Early 5th Umbral Moon, doesn’t know the exact day.

Occupation: Mercenary, security chief for the Drunken Moogle Pub ( @drunkenmoogle ).

Allegiance: Mostly to individuals, but by extension the Mahov family ( @mahov-ffxiv ) and Drunken Moogle Pub.

Sexual Identification: Homosexual.

Romantic Identification: Homoromantic, polyamorous.

Alignment: Neutral.

Criminal History: None, although she did once kill a Brass Blade patrol, which some people (notably Brass Blades) might possibly consider a crime; the only witness chose not to report it.

Relationship Status: Single.

Sweet On: Q’nahli Rhanya ( @nahlithehatcat ), although she knows it won’t happen. Also to a lesser extent Ishvara Malqir ( @rubysiren ), who she finds fascinating.

Favorites:

Favorite food: Meat.

Favorite drink: Water; left to herself, she drinks nothing else.

Favorite artist: Q’nahli Rhanya and Y’min Diari ( @minquisitor ), mostly because they’re both close friends. She has no particular interest in art.

Favorite scents: Leather and metal. She finds the familiarity calming.

Favorite person: Nyx Mahov ( @nyx-ffxiv ), her first and closest friend, and now cousin by adoption.

Extras:

Ten Facts:

Living Weapon: Y’ladri’s mother wanted a weapon more than a daughter, so that’s what she raised. Y’ladri’s entire childhood revolved around training to be the perfect killing machine, learning every weapon available (mainly focusing on melee weapons) and unarmed combat, as well as anatomy and biology; it’s easier to take something apart if you know how it’s put together. While her fighting style appears at a glance to be basically berserking, relying on raw power to overwhelm opponents, she’s actually a very precise fighter, every strike aiming for weak point in armor or physiology. While she -can- cut straight through bone or armor, it’s more efficient to strike between bones or plates. She’s studied a wide range of styles, including ones she’s personally unsuited to, both to better anticipate what spoken opponents may do and because any style might have elements she can use.

Always Ready: Due both to her training and trauma from her mother’s death, which she still largely blames herself for, Y’ladri is slightly obsessive about being ready for attack at any time. She never goes out without her armor and enough weapons for a platoon. Even in places she feels comfortable, she may take her axe and swordbelt off, but always keeps them in reach. When sleeping, she wears bracers and leg guards with small stilettos sheathed into them, because she’s more comfortable wearing blades.

Fatherless: Y’ladri has no idea who her father was; her mother would simply start cursing if the subject came up. He was probably a Seeker, as she shows no signs of mixed parentage, but that’s all she knows. She isn’t even certain if her surname came from him, or if her mother gave her a different one to avoid referencing him, but she’s never told anyone what it is, just in case: If it was his name, he’s not part of who she is. She introduced herself only as Y’ladri until she became a Mahov.

Insecure: Due to her last serious relationship ending in a very harsh breakup, Y’ladri has very little self-confidence in regards to anything but combat and raw physical ability, and has concluded that all but one person she’s been involved with was only interested in the sex. She now tends to assume people aren’t interested, even if they indicate they are (which she usually attributes to either natural flirtiness or trying to make her feel better), and that anyone who is probably just likes muscle or scars, rather than caring about her as a person. Despite a substantial interest in sex (and habit of ogling pretty girls), she doesn’t intend to get involved with anyone who isn’t a close friend first.

Void-Infected: Y’ladri’s left eye was cut out by a powerful voidsent, and both the socket and the scar down her face from it remain void-tainted, leaving them unnaturally blackened. While the taint has no significant effect on her as far as she’s aware, it is noticeable to anyone void-sensitive.

Myostatin-Related Muscle Hypertrophy: Y’ladri has MRMH, a mutation causing reduced body fat and dramatically increased muscle mass. She builds muscle very easily, even as a child, leading her mother to have her focus on heavier weapons such as her greataxe. This has produced a massive physique, more heavily muscled than even most Roegadyn.

Aetheric Strength: Y’ladri constantly draws in aether, boosting her strength, reducing bleeding and pain, and making her completely immune to physical fatigue. The effect is normally fairly slight, but increases as she gets more worked up, making her inhumanly strong while in combat.

Socially Ignorant: Y’ladri’s entire upbringing revolved around combat, leaving her with very little knowledge of social norms; her mother was always the one who dealt with people they weren’t killing, until her own death shortly after the Calamity. While this does have some positive aspects, such as leaving her with very few prejudices about groups of people (she’s not even aware that sex work is stigmatized), it also means she has no concept of appropriate topics or basic tact, and will cheerfully discuss sex and bloodshed in public, or openly ogle pretty girls, with no idea that it might be offending someone (other than said girls’ dates, but she sees that as jealousy, which she considers completely irrational).

Scars are Lessons: Y’ladri intentionally leaves cosmetic scars even from wounds she gets magically healed, maintaining that every scar is a lesson you lived through. This is especially true considering that most of hers actually come from her training as a child, when her mother would cut her and have her practice while bleeding in order to learn to ignore pain, rather than from actual combat.

Magicless: Aside from her aetheric strength and teleportation (which is unusually easy for her, due to a very strong anima and learning at a young age), Y’ladri is entirely unable to use magic. This is most likely due to her extremely direct, straightforward view of things meshing poorly with the more intricate requirements of aether manipulation.

Five Things:

They Like:

Sex

Directness

Practicality

Free will

Touching

They Dislike:

Slavery

Rape

Friends being hurt

Verbal evasiveness

Boasting

Good Traits:

Loyal

Fearless

Honest

Affectionate

Open-minded

Bad Traits:

Tactless

Limited understanding of morality

Reckless

Passive

Entirely combat-oriented by upbringing

Fears:

Losing friends

Failure causing harm to friends

Disability leaving her unable to fight

Being vulnerable

Loss of free will

Personalities They Avoid:

Nunh-ish: Y’ladri despises people who act as though they assume every woman they meet wants them, an attitude she particularly associates with Nunhs; that association likely comes from her mother, who left the tribe several years before Y’ladri was born. It’s a very quick way to ensure she never warms up to someone.

Arrogant: Y’ladri tends to feel that if you have to flaunt how great you are, you probably aren’t. If you were really as good as you think, you wouldn’t need to keep waving it in people’s faces.

Belligerent: Despite being a professional killer, Y’ladri sees no reason to start trouble, and prefers to avoid those that do. She doesn’t understand why some people seem to feel the need to pick fights over nothing, and to her, very little is worth starting trouble over. Why bother?

Unreliable: If she can’t trust you, Y’ladri isn’t going to want anything to do with you. It’s just not worth it.

Passive: While Y’ladri doesn’t particularly dislike passive people, her own passiveness and tendency to be a bit of a follower rather than taking the initiative outside combat means that her interactions with other passive individuals tend not to really go anywhere interesting.

Personalities They Gravitate Toward:

Maternal: Y’ladri is a naturally affectionate person, but her mother was very much not. As a result, she tends to be very fond of warm, caring types, finding them relaxing to be around.

Dependable: Y’ladri likes feeling she can rely on someone, even if it takes a while for her to warm up to people enough to entirely trust them.

Confident: Y’ladri feels everyone should have a clear self-knowledge, confident enough about their own abilities - both strengths and weaknesses - to accept them without feeling the need to either flaunt or hide them.

Innocent: Curiously, Y’ladri can get -very- protective of innocent cinnamon-roll types. I really have no explanation for how this came about, it just sort of happens.

Assertive: Because she’s a bit passive herself, Y’ladri prefers to let someone she trusts take the lead, although she doesn’t much like people thinking they can just order her around. As such, she likes people who are assertive without being controlling, and willing to take the lead.

[kadobeclothing]

500 Atlassians Worked Remotely for a Week — Here’s What We Learned

Like most companies, Atlassian has a mixture of people who are working from home full-time (like me) and those who grab an ad-hoc day when the plumber is coming or they can’t stop sneezing. But our collective WFH muscles got a major workout recently when 500 of us went remote during the week-long gap between moving out of one office space and into another.

I talked to colleagues in several departments at Atlassian and dug into my own bag of tricks to bring you this collection of tips for working from home. And because working from home came with a few surprises, I’ll also share some little-known facts and a classic blooper – don’t miss these if you’re thinking of transitioning to full-time remote work.

Working From Home Tips 1. Dedicate a work space and make it your own. Yes, this tip is at the top of every other list of working from home tips you’ve ever read. There’s a reason for that. When you work from an office, your commute helps your brain shift into “work mode”. At home, you can create that same mental shift by dedicating a spot for working. “I have a separate desk at home that is pretty much only used for work,” says Miles, a marketing manager. “This helps me focus because I think of that area as a mini office.” If you’re short on space and have to use your couch or kitchen table, no worries. Just be consistent.

Trick out your home office space on the cheap, with the help of flea markets and a bit of DIY ingenuity. Don’t just stop once you’ve acquired a desk, though. Give your space some personality with wall art, framed photos, a desk lamp to die for, or an essential oil diffuser if that’s your jam. 2. Pace yourself. Y’know how running to the office kitchen to refill your coffee “real quick-like” typically results in a 10-minute hallway convo about your big new project? I didn’t understand the value of interludes like that until I went remote. At first, I would blast through my tasks for the week in about three days because there were so few interruptions. Sounds great, except I’d be completely out of gas by Thursday. And Fridays were, umm, less than productive. Your work week is a marathon – not a sprint. I quickly learned to sprinkle a few 5-10 minute pace breaks throughout the day, away from my desk if possible. For my teammate Claire, her furry friend makes all the difference. “I take my dog for a walk before I start work, at lunch, early afternoon, and after I’m done for the day. It’s a great mental break.” Not to mention healthy. Do ten push-ups or hold yourself in plank pose. Pick up your guitar. Make your grocery list. Your stamina (and your team) will thank you. 3. Be brutally self-aware. While some people (me included) absolutely love working from home, others love the idea of working from home… only to find the reality doesn’t suit them. And that’s ok. “It’s tough to get started, and it’s tough to set things aside when I’m done for the day,” says Jim, a developer on the Bitbucket team. “I also feel isolated from the rest of the team.” That’s a common sentiment, so don’t be afraid to own it. If transferring back into an office isn’t an option, self-awareness will help you find your WFH groove. Develop some strategies for staying connected to your team and understand what will help you focus vs. what will distract you. Have an open, on-going dialog with your team and check in with yourself regularly. Conversely, if you love working from home, take the time to reflect on why and make the most of those aspects. 4. Stock your kitchen with food you can be proud of. For those of us who’ve been spoiled by posh perks like company-provided meals, providing your own coffee and breakfast and lunch and snacks is quite an adjustment. A few days into his week of remote work, customer support analyst Orpheus (who is every bit as cool as his name suggests) lamented his lack of grab n’ go gnoshables: “Folks who work from home need a snack food budget.” Regardless of who pays, the logistics are on you. If your lunch game involves anything more complicated than warming up last night’s leftovers, you’ll need to build prep and clean-up time into your workday routine. For maximum efficiency, pick up a full week’s worth of supplies each Monday morning (unless a daily walk to the store is your pace break of choice). Choose brain-boosting superfoods like almonds, broccoli, berries, beans, eggs, and salmon. Remember, working from home tends to be more sedentary than office-based work, so skip the Oreos. 5. Dress as if you were going to the office (almost). Full-blown business attire probably isn’t necessary, but do make yourself presentable. You’re going to end up on a lot of video calls, for one thing (more on that later). More importantly, getting dressed is another important part of the mental shift into work mode. But don’t stop there. Establish a morning routine that is as close as possible to your routine when you’re going into an office. Here’s mine: 6:00 – Wake up, brush teeth, exercise. 7:00 – Get kids up, brew coffee, shower, get dressed (including hair and make-up), unload the dishwasher, help my daughter do her hair, curse at the stray Legos I inevitably step on. 8:00 – Take my son to preschool. 8:30 – Start work. Rituals allow us to make transitions with minimal mental and emotional turbulence. Yours might be totally mundane like mine, or you might mix it up by working for an hour before you shower and dress. The important thing is to find a routine that works for you and step through it consistently. “The routine of physically getting ready for work is one of the most important things I did to make my week of working from home productive”, says Cameron, who leads an engineering group of more 250 people. 6. Get over your hang-ups around video conferencing. Many of us have scars from struggling with video calls in years past – the struggle was real. That may explain why people new to working from home, and their teammates in the office, are often skittish about vid chat. The good news is that now you can jump into a video call in a matter of seconds using Skype, Google Hangouts, Zoom, BlueJeans, or similar services. “Being comfortable with quick video chats saves a lot of time compared to trading emails or instant messages,” says dev tools marketer Alyss. That face-to-face interaction also does wonders in terms of building relationships with co-workers. However, be prepared to coach your co-workers a little as they learn to embrace the impromptu video call. Their instinct will be to go find an empty conference room, which just wastes time. If you walked over to their desk in person, you’d have the conversation right there and been done in under a minute. Nobody would think twice about distracting people at neighboring desks because ambient noise is just part of being in an office. Video calls should be treated the same way. Once my teammates got accustomed to that idea, it made working as a distributed team a lot easier. And while we all want to present an aura of perfect professionalism, I encourage you not to stress about it overly much. There will be a time when the doorbell rings or your cat walks across your laptop, right in front of your camera. My kids sometimes pop into view on evening calls with people across the Pacific and I allow it because they seem to enjoy the extra glimpse into my world. (Your mileage may vary, of course, but we can all thank “the BBC guy” for breaking some serious ground on our behalf.) And now, a few surprising things about working from home full-time … Although I felt I’d done my homework before going remote, there was still a lot to learn. If you’re considering going fully remote, take these tidbits into account. There’s a good chance your boss would rather keep you on as a remote worker than replace you. Recruiting, interviewing, and on-boarding new employees is a lot of overhead. Many managers feel having an established teammate go remote is far less disruptive on the whole – especially if you’re crushing it lately. Supporting remote employees is not trivial from an HR and tax perspective. In the U.S., a company must have a tax entity set up in every state in which they have a full-time employee. For this reason, many companies restrict full-time remote work to states where they already have offices. Benefits administration gets complicated because many insurance carriers operate regionally instead of nationally. And it’s just good business sense to adjust remote employees’ salaries to be in line with where they’re living. Figuring all this out takes time away from work HR could be doing that might benefit more people. So if you meet resistance from your employer about going remote, don’t assume they’re trying to be evil. They’re just trying to be practical. There are hidden costs to remote work. You’ll need the fastest, strongest internet connection money can buy. You’ll be paying for (and taking the time to procure) all your coffee, snacks, and meals. Your utility bill will go up because you’re no longer tuning the heat and/or air conditioning down during the day and you’re keeping more lights on. For most people, however, these new costs will be offset by the fact that you’re not gassing up the car or paying bus fare as often. Sharing a workspace with a roommate or partner feels less isolated, but has its own challenges. My husband works remotely too, and when we moved, we made sure to buy a home with an office we can share. It was a great way to start the transition to remote work. Soon, however, he was working almost exclusively from his recliner. We could never agree on what temperature the room should be, and we both tend to be vocal participants in meetings. So now we work in separate rooms and send chat messages to each other even though we’re 50 feet apart. Which is kind of pathetic, but there it is. Extroverts actually do quite well as remote workers. The key to staying in the loop and feeling connected when you’re the one remote member of your team is initiating communication. ABC, baby – always be communicating. We extroverts tend to do this instinctively anyway. Interpersonal interaction is our default setting. So we get a “two birds, one stone” synergy bonus. Getting everyone to take the meeting via video is kind of awesome. When only one person joins remotely, it’s easy to (unintentionally) leave them out of the discussion and harder for them to contribute. But when everyone dials in, even if it’s from their desk at the office, we’re all in the same boat and on our best behavior. We raise our hands to speak. We wait until the other person is done talking before chiming in. We’re less likely to let one person dominate the conversation.

All-remote meetings + Halloween = good times. Besides: you know who enjoys being the one giant head on the TV during meetings? Nobody. This working from home thing isn’t for everybody. Although I’d love to tell you the WFH week was universally loved, it wasn’t. Max from marketing said it was “only the best week ever”, while Mary, a product owner, missed the higher level of social interaction and felt like the week was something she “just had to get through”. For others, it was a big empathy-builder. “Be mindful of our remote colleagues and how easy it is for them to feel (or be) left out,” says Adam from technical account management. Your experience working from home will involve plenty of twists, turns, fails, and wins. Be patient as you and your team adjust, expect the unexpected, and just roll with it. At least you can rest easy knowing you won’t be the first remote worker whose toddler makes an unplanned cameo on international television. This article was originally published on Atlassian.com and republished with permission.

Source link

source https://www.kadobeclothing.store/500-atlassians-worked-remotely-for-a-week-heres-what-we-learned/